Maryland woman still has license after 45 citations

WUSA9 did an investigation into a local woman's driving record, which may leave you wondering how she still has a license.

Author:
Andrea McCarren

Published:
1:55 PM CDT October 29, 2016

Updated:
2:10 PM CDT October 29, 2016

WUSA9 did an investigation into a local woman’s driving record, which may leave you wondering how she still has a license.

Candice Montgomery is a Maryland realtor, whose most recent offense just happened to be caught on camera by our colleague, Photojournalist Kurt Brooks.

Brooks witnessed a driver back into a parked car and tried to leave the scene. He couldn't believe it.

"I said you hit that car! You need to stop," said Brooks.

What happened next was just as shocking.

"She hopped out of the car, she came right up to me, and said ‘What do you care? Is that your car?,'" recalled Brooks.

What 24-year-old Montgomery didn’t realize was that Brooks had multiple surveillance cameras mounted outside his Annapolis home. Videos that would capture everything. But Brooks wasn’t taking any chances.

I need the license plate, I need the face of the driver and then I just need a shot of the car to see what’s going on," said Brooks.

After that incident, Brooks and the ITeam looked into Montgomery’s driving record. We found at least 45 citations stemming from nine separate traffic stops. The violations range from speeding to driving on a suspended license.

We showed that driving record to Maryland State Delegate David Fraser-Hidalgo, a former Montgomery County Police Officer.

"It’s a ticking time bomb, right? Sooner or later, somebody’s going to get hurt or somebody’s going to get killed," said Officer Fraser-Hidalgo. "It’s just rolling the dice."

He was especially disturbed by Montgomery’s failure to show up in court, as many as 23 times.

"It’s a slap in the face to the police officer that issued the ticket, it’s a slap in the face of the judge and a slap in the face of the courts there," said Officer Fraser-Hidalgo.

Court records also reveal many of her cases were never prosecuted. And in several others, she pleaded guilty and received probation before judgment—in lieu of a conviction.

"If you don’t learn your lesson, the next time they push a little more and they push a little more and they push a little more, until something absolutely horrible happens." said Officer Fraser-Hidalgo. "And somebody gets killed."

We also uncovered at least five traffic citations she racked up in Florida. We’ve made several attempts to contact Montgomery through her lawyer and her workplace, but she hasn’t responded. Her defense attorney John McKenna said his only surprise was that -we- were surprised that Montgomery still has her driver’s license. He told us, “This happens all the time.”

Montgomery remains on probation for that hit and run in Annapolis, along with probation for another incident of driving on a suspended license.

To learn more about the state of Virginia's driving violations, click here.

To learn more about the state of Maryland's driving violations, click here.